1. Field of Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to circuit load characteristics, and more specifically, to estimating energy usage of branch circuits of an electrical distribution panel.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Electrical equipment consumes energy, and different types of electrical equipment have different energy requirements. Knowledge of the amount of energy used by different types of electrical equipment facilitates efficient power distribution and billing for consumed power and other power management operations.
Determining the energy consumption of a load generally requires direct and individual power measurements of that load. Distributed power meters individually register power consumption of different loads, even when the power to each load originates from a common power source. For example, a main power source supplies power to an apartment complex, and separate power meters register the power consumption of each apartment for billing or other purposes. This generally requires a dedicated power meter for each apartment, which is costly and inefficient, and requires redundant infrastructure elements throughout a power distribution system.
United States Patent Application Publication US 2008/0278344 to Bardehle, et al. relates to a method and arrangement for registering and evaluating energy consumption. Bardehle discloses buildings such as hotels that have a building-wide data bus as part of an energy management system. This data bus makes it possible to register the switched-on duration of individual loads such as the lighting or heating system of individual hotel rooms. The energy consumption of a particular hotel room is then determined by multiplying the registered on-time of the individual loads by the specific electrical power or energy consumption of the load. However, this requires advance knowledge of the specific electrical power of the load, such as the wattage ratings of the lighting devices in a particular hotel room, in order to evaluate energy consumption.